When a Republican complains about federal spending just spit on him [View all]

[cthulu2016]

Last edited Fri Jun 8, 2012, 01:45 PM - Edit history (2)

Seriously... spitting on him is a more rational debate than he deserves.

This chart is federal government spending per capita. (It is log-scale, whch makes it less dramatic.) As you follow the line up from the mid-1950s there are only two places where the line deflects to a shallower angle that is anywhere near flat. (Slower growth of federal spending.)

The first is the Carter Administration.

The second is the Clinton administration.

After the Vietnam war, the two big up angles are the Reagan/Bush era, and then the GW Bush era. And this is SPENDING. Not the deficit caused by tax cuts, but actual sharply increased spending.

But it doesn't count as "real" spending to Republicans because much of it is military spending. (The big growth periods here are Vietnam, Reagan's re-armament, the Bush I wars and the Bush II wars.)

The Obama administration is, due to the economy falling apart, and the federal government picking up $100s of billions of state expenses, merely maintaining the Bush era angle. Not up from the Bush angle, merely maintaining it.


http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/real-government-spending-per-capita/